Teenage Angst Continued...

My life is under a cloud. Have you ever had to live with a long-term house guest? Well, that's what we've been going through since the day before Easter. I think at first, we thought it was going to be a great adventure, maybe even our own sitcom plopped right down in the middle of our mundane, suburban lives.

But well, it's more like two urban, childless yuppies have an insto-presto teenager moping about playing video games and constantly complaining and whining about his life.

So, the hardworking, young urban hipster couple are now parents to one recalcitrant teenager and all the attending angst and hormones.Punchline though ~ he's nearly 30!

Ok ~ comedy is not my thing and the novel is more dark than comedic.

In Love with Twilight

Let me start out by saying that I am a ridiculously slow reader. Not because I have reading comprehension issues or anything like that. But rather, I really like to savor my books. I like to read a few pages, then sit and let it sink in, spend time with the characters in my head. Continue the story. Develop plot lines for them on my own. Then I'll read a bit more.

But not with Twilight. I barely wanted to turn the light off at night. I read it in record time and now I'm *dying* for Book 2. I've sent my Sig Other to the bookstore to pick it up. He better come back with the right thing or else... or else I'll have to go get it myself.

It's been quite a while since I've read a book that's left me breathless for more. Oh, I've like the books that I've been reaing but this was love... love like Bella has for Edward: amped up, hyper-hormoned, achey teen stuff.

To read it is to love it!

Penelope

A friend invited me to see Penelope with her the other evening. I was tempted to stay home. It's cold. I'm a homebody and, well, I should be writing, as another blogger so aptly puts it. But this movie was so adorably cute that I was glad that I went.

For all of us romance readers, it was a neat little twist on a classic story of finding true love ~ despite everything. Add a dash of James McAvoy and you've got a nice little movie indeed.

Desert Island Books

I was thinking recently about the old "Desert Island Discs" concept but applied to books instead. What I discovered kind of surprised me. Here I was thinking that I was an infinitely practical person. But my choices revealed something altogether different. I discovered that I am really an idealist. My choices, slim volumes mostly, really affected my life for better or for worse. The practical person, who revealed herself in the person of one of my friends, would choose, say: The Holy Bible, the Encyclopedia Britanica, The Oxford English Dictionary.

Those are great practical choices but they didn't come immediately to mind. If I truly found myself stranded on a desert island with the few hundred pages below, I'd probably be suicidal.

In no particular order:

A Room of One's Own. I still feel very strongly about this book and cling to my writing freedom, and my right to it, like it's my own personal manifesto. I know that I have been slightly selfish about my personal time and activities and sometimes this takes a toll on my personal relationships. I can only apologize; I can't change. Well, I don't think I want to.


The Awakening. This book, in its exploration of marriage, identity and motherhood put its indelible stamp on me in high school and (many, many) years later, I still wrestle with these same issues and don't know that much has changed for women. I still feel bound by expectations, both societal and biological, that I'll become a mother. What am I waiting for? Read this book and you'll see... well, maybe don't read it so you can go blissfully ignorant into various life stages.


Breakfast at Tiffany's. I recently saw the movie again. Not as lovely as the book but it was a treat to find it on in the afternoon. Holly Golightly is the quintessential floater. There is something that tugs at my soul about her approach to life, not having really felt a sense of belonging to anyone or any place.

Anna Karenina. I'll simply say that I went through a dark, Russian period. I mean: Crime and Punishment, Notes from Underground, etc. I think I spent pretty much an entire week in college reading this book. I skipped classes, barely showered, camped out in my BF's room and read while he wrote German essays in a little, perfect bound, college rule, old school, black and white classic notebook. While I don't recommend bailing on life for a week, it was Boston in the dead of winter...

Oh ~ and I would definitely sneak some romance novels into my life raft because I'm a lifelong romance reader. I'd take some Rosemary Rogers. Surrender to Love was the first romance I ever read. I found it in a box of books that were going out for donation. I was 12 years old and it totally rocked my world!

On the Chopping Block

I cut 8 pages today. That's a pretty scary number for someone who has struggled for every word, paragraph and page. But I just wanted my scene to go in a different direction and felt that I could really set the stage for some action later on in the story if I cut those pages.

I have a good outline for what I think needs to happen now with my characters.

It still didn't feel particularly good. I'm going back to it now. I'm determined to make up the pages that I cut so I have to hustle so I don't feel like I've made negative progress.

I'm ALIVE

Not that it was ever in question. But I kinda had a resolution that I wasn't going to blog anymore until I was at least done with my current WIP. But ~ that didn't go as planned. Yes, I"m still writing. Still struggling. It's just so damn hard.

And here's the rub... I've put myself on the line to finish this thing. Ego. I've told so many people that I'm oh so close that I now really have to finish. And I kinda like what I have so far.. and I kiinda don't as well. But I'm in the deep end and I've got to get to the other side.

Eating and writing

I've been a bad writer. Yes, I guess in that way too. But really remiss in keeping up with my goals. My sister in law said something that perked me up. It had nothing to do with my writing but rather it was about eating habits. She said that when I had a bad day of hogging down cupcakes and chips, washing it all day with full-cal soda, I seemed able to just turn the page on it and go back to my healthy ways the very next day.

I want to apply that to my writing self.

I need to get back to my healthy writing. Deep breaths. Letting go of the guilt now...